charlietheowl's Random Thoughts: Season 1 of TMS

[charlietheowl]

George was boring, but I didn't think Hilda was that bad. I do wonder if the writing staff felt the need to have a few extra "human-like" characters early on to not weird out the audience. Most of the characters dropped early on (George, Mildred, Wayne, Wanda, Hilda, even JP Grosse) were all people compared to monsters or animals.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Right, I forgot to say, one of the only things I liked about season one, was the Wayne and Wanda Sketches

 

[AlittleMayhem]

When the show started out, it was kind of hit and miss because they were just starting out and were trying different things to see what worked. Even though it's my least favourite season, S1 did have a lot of really good bits that I enjoyed.​

One of them was the guest stars. Yeah, I had no idea who a lot of these people were or are, but for the most part, they were pretty good. Rita Moreno's fever, Ruth Buzzi’s nuttiness, Joel Grey’s and Paul William’s singing, Avery Schreiber vs Sweetums, Peter Ustinov’s sophistication, Kaye Ballard vs Animal and Miss Piggy, Phillis Diller’s terrible saxophone playing and my personal favourite being Bruce Forsyth and Fozzie vs Statler and Waldorf. Yes, I agree Mummenschanz didn’t do any interactions with the Muppets, which was one of the shows strong points, but I loved their act!

A few sketches and songs I liked and the UK spots were good, but most of the time they were kinda boring and I often found myself skipping a few.

I’m not totally fond of Wayne and Wanda, though I admit, it was kinda cool that they were in the lastest movie. Miss Piggy was mostly forgettable, always swooning around Kermit, so it was a VERY wise decision to change her character to a more diva, demanding, attention seeking and sometimes complex character. I’m also glad that the changed Gonzo’s character in the second season, but the sad, desperate character they started off with was, oddly kinda adorable and sometimes funny. Also, his attempts after Miss Piggy was hilarious.

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

I really just hate Season one of TMS. It is by far the WORST. I'm just happy I didn't start off with that season from the beginninng of my fandom, or otherwise I'd be turned off right away.
Firstly the characters:
George: An extremely annoying character and is just so boring. Not funny, and he was in the spotlight way to much.
Hilda: Also, a horribly boring and annoying character.
Janice's Voice: I'm so glad that changed
Fozzie and Piggy: I am so glad these two changed. I love Fozzie, he's my favorite character, but Fozzie is season one, is just horrible. He doesn' look good and his voice sounds strange, and I'm so glad Piggy's appearance changed (her voice changes too, as the season goes on)
The skecthes:
Vetenarians Hospital: My favorite sketch is ruined in this season. The jokes are just horrible, in the other seasons, they are corny, but funny. Here, nothing.
At The Dance: The humor in this one is also very dumb. No good jokes and those stupid things with Animal and that other dancer. (ONE-TWO THREE DIP!!!)

Same with me! I mean, I cant say I HATED the first season, it's just, the other seasons were far better.

 

[Muppet Master]

Season 1 is quite deformed, if the show wasn't in syndication then I suspect it would've been the only season. Most of the characters are deformed or O.O.C throughout. The only characters who stay the same as in the future are like Kermit, Rowlf, and Scooter. There are also so many characters that they chopped afterwards. The most notable being Hilda who was a secondary character, but rarely ever appeared again. The show also didn't have the biggest plot , it was more like just a package of sketches wrapped together, unlike later seasons where there was a central story with some sketches sprinkled here and there. Overal, even with that said, season 1 is still pretty good.

 

[Muppet Master]

It's also a little sad seeing Kermit hate on Gonzo so much. I think that was the stupidest thing about the season, thank goodness Gonzo wasn't in that many season 1 episodes.

 

[David French]

So I have just recently completed watching the first season of The Muppet Show for the first time, and thought that since I really don't have much else to do today, I'd get a thread going on some odds and ends from that season. In somewhat chronological order:

• Talking Houses: don't get it at all.

The jokes are (usually) puns/play-on-words about houses/architecture.

• The handful of numbers that didn't really include any Muppets (the butterfly song with Florence Henderson, "In My Life" with Twiggy, Mummenschanz) confuse me because since the whole show is about the interaction between the guests and the Muppets, why would the writers have done anything that didn't rely on that?

Except that the show isn't always about the interaction between the two. And how exactly are the Mummenschanz supposed to interact with the Muppets, based on the act that they do? Some guests in future seasons do numbers that don't have Muppet characters or use them in the background.

• The "at the dance" segments are funny, but sometimes I must admit I don't understand the jokes, whether they were just poorly written or are more 70s-style stuff I don't know. So I prefer the visual jokes more.

Mixture of topical/straight-forward puns. The topical jokes would have been clever at the time.

• "*** Willow" is awesome. I like when they send up Sam's cultural-values image. He's kind of under-utilized the first season, as he really only introduces Wayne and Wanda...

Why did you censor the word ***? It's not referring to breasts if that's what you're thinking. The bird in question is a Willow ***.

• I know I said this before, but Mummenschanz does not work at all. No interaction with Muppets=no funny.

Again, with the type of act they do it's not that easy to interact with the Muppets. And they do interact with Kermit in the talk spot so...

 

[charlietheowl]

Why did you censor the word ***? It's not referring to breasts if that's what you're thinking. The bird in question is a Willow ***.

The forum censored that word, not me. The system is very sensitive to anything that might be considered inappropriate.

 

[Drtooth]

I actually do like the first season, even though it really didn't come together. It was a vastly better show since the second season, however. And while I do really like season 3, there really aren't too many intriguing guest stars. But on the other hand, that means you have to appreciate the show for the Muppets, so... yeah.. it's better anyway.

 

[Muppet Master]

This past spring break weekend I've watched 3 episodes of season 1 a day and today I have the final episode left to watch, Mummenschanz, I hope it's good, and it'll be my first finished season I've watched of TMS! My top five favorite season 1 episodes include.

Vincent Price
Harvey Korman
Ethel Merman
Ruth Buzzi
Kaye Ballard